Tomorrow, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will officially inaugurate the country’s largest Payra 1320 MW thermal power plant at Kalapara upazila and will declare Bangladesh as the first South Asian country to achieve 100% electrification across the country.
State Minister for Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid told reporters at the power plant premises, ‘Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will come here, inaugurate the power plant and announce 100% electrification across the country as every house has been illuminated with electricity.’
‘It was a big challenge for all of us to implement such a state-of-the-art project for the first time in the last 50 years,’ he said. ‘It is an ultra-supercritical technology power plant.’
‘We have used ultra-supercritical technology to build the coal-fired power plant, ranking third in South Asia and 11th in the world,’ he said. He said that Bangladesh-China Power Company Limited (BCPCL) has built the power plant.
The first 660 MW unit of the power plant was launched commercially in May 2020, using a 400 kV Payra-Gopalganj power transmission and the second started production in December last year.
Barisal Divisional Commissioner Md. Amin Ul Ahsan said that the economic activities of the people of the area have already accelerated with the launch of the Payra 1320 MW thermal power plant adjacent to the Payra seaport.
Noting that work is underway to set up an economic zone in the area, he said that the site has already been selected and the process of land acquisition is underway. The government has a huge plan centred on the southern part of the country.
The commissioner said that apart from the 1320 MW thermal power plant, another power plant is under construction and the government has plans to build a 1320 MW power plant and a solar power plant here.
‘The region will become a power hub in the next five to ten years,’ he added.
